Continuing a chronological Bible study set forth by Skip Andrews, we return to a passage in Genesis 47, before continuing with Exodus, chapter 1:
(Genesis 47:27) And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.
Genesis 47:27 gives a brief synopsis of Israel (Jacob) and his descendants who remained in Goshen in the land of Egypt and grew and prospered there.
(Exodus 1:1) Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob. (2) Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, (3) Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Exodus begins with a recap of the names of the children of Israel (Jacob) who came to Egypt with Jacob. The men's names were listed and it was said their households came with them. The sons of Leah are listed first, followed by Benjamin, son of Rachel, who is mentioned before the rest even though he was the youngest, because they were sons of hand maidens. Joseph, the other son of Rachel, is not mentioned because he was already in Egypt, and did not go there with Jacob.
(4) Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. (5) And all the souls who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already.
The four sons of the hand maidens are mentioned last. All the people who came to Egypt from Jacob's family numbered 70 people. Genesis 46:26-27 explained how this number was reached. There were 32 souls from Leah's children, including their children; 16 from Leah's maid's children; 7 from Rachel's maid; 11 from Rachel through Benjamin; and three more with Joseph and his two sons who were already in Egypt, and Jacob himself made a total of 70 souls.
(6) And Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. (7) And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
As part of the set-up for the book of Exodus, we are told briefly about Jacob's family in Egypt. That entire generation died, but the children of Israel continued in Egypt, growing abundantly in number and in might.
(8) Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. (9) And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; (10) Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there fall out any war, they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so get them out of the land.”
There was a new pharaoh, one who did not know Joseph, or at least did not realize that Egypt had been blessed because of Joseph's faith in God. All he could see were that those children of Israel were now more and mightier than the Egyptians. He seemed to fear that they would eventually fight against the Egyptians and leave Egypt. By that statement, it is obvious that Egypt prospered because of the children of Israel, but Pharaoh didn't connect the dots to understand why. Egypt was blessed because of the former pharaoh's favor upon Joseph, who was blessed by God. Maybe this new pharaoh had heard the children of Israel speak of their eventual return to their promised land in Canaan, and he wanted to devise a plan that would keep them in Egypt.
(11) Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
The Egyptians set taskmasters over the children of Israel, captains over burdens, as the word suggests. The burdens were probably heavy forced labors, but the word also means tax burdens. Their burdens may have been a bit of both. The children of Israel were forced into hard labor for little pay because of their high taxes. Their labors profited Pharaoh, and were probably designed to diminish their wealth and their spirits. The children of Israel built "treasure cities" for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses, which may have been store or supply cities for treasure. I have read that Pithom might be the same as Pathumus, or Patmos. It is easier to see that Raamses is probably Rameses, and in the words of Biblical scholar Adam Clarke in his Commentary on the Bible, it "is supposed to have been the capital of the land of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by anticipation; for it was probably not erected till after the days of Joseph, when the Israelites were brought under that severe oppression described in the book of Exodus."
It was from reading Adam Clarke's commentary on this scripture that I learned that some writers of his time or rather up to his time (1762-1832), believed that the Israelites built the pyramids. Why had I never considered this? Perhaps because I bought into the taught secular notion that the pyramids were much older than they probably are. Could the pyramids have been places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures? Indeed, the historian Josephus (37-100 AD) said that the Israelite slaves built the pyramids! “The Egyptians contrived a variety of ways to afflict the Israelites; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating upon its overrunning its own banks; they set them also to build pyramids, and wore them out, and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanic arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labor.” Of course, this makes perfect sense! Secular historians and archaeologists have long pondered how such ancient structures could have been so precisely built in a time predating such engineering and technological knowledge. Some have even wondered if aliens supplied the know-how! They would rather believe in aliens than believe they could have miscalculated the age of the pyramids. There is a great article on this here by answersingenesis.org. It seems so simple an explanation to Bible believers, especially when you consider other scriptures that spoke of the hard labor of the Israelite slaves, and that they were making bricks (Exodus 5). But why would an alien explanation be a surprise from the same secular world that would rather believe that something evolved from nothing rather than believing in a creator God?
(12) But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. (13) And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. (14) And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
Evidently the Egyptians thought making the Israelites work much harder under heavy burdens would weaken them, but the more they afflicted them, the more they grew. That grieved the Egyptians and therefore they made their lives bitter with all types of hard labor and made them serve with rigor. The word translated as "rigor" was "perek" and it meant "rigor" or "cruelty", but also came from a root word that meant "fracture" or "break apart", so they were literally trying to break the Israelites with all types of hard labor.
The chronological study I am doing inserted a couple of verses from elsewhere in the Bible to set up what comes next in Exodus 1:
(Numbers 26:59) And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bore to Levi in Egypt; and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam.
(Exodus 6:20) And Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven.
This is an example of why I love studying a chronological version of the Bible. With the combination of the two verses above, we get a more complete picture than when reading just one verse. Not only did Amram marry the daughter of Levi, but she was also his father's sister. In the verses leading up to verse 20 in Exodus 6, we learned that Amram was the son of Kohath, who was a son of Levi. Therefore, a son of Kohath married Kohath's sister. That meant that Moses who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament freely admitted that his father took his aunt as wife, something that would become strictly forbidden later as recorded in Leviticus 18:12. This had the potential of being seen as a blot on Moses's family, but I believe this shows that Moses sought to tell the truth, whether or not it made him look good. I have heard current apologist Frank Turek speak of such things as indicators that the Bible is true and not a fabrication. If you were making up a tale, wouldn't you be tempted to leave out the parts that might be embarrassing? Amram, a grandson of Levi, married Jochebed, a daughter of Levi, and she bore him three children, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. Amram lived to the age of 137. Now back to Exodus 1:
(Exodus 1:15) And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; (16) And he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
The hard labor wasn't doing anything to diminish the Israelites, so the king decided to start having babies killed to keep the Israelites from growing "more and mightier" than the Egyptians. He instructed the Hebrew midwives to kill all boy babies as they were being born. Girls could live, but all boys were to be killed by order of the king. In my reading of the old commentaries and of the historical writings of Josephus, I believe the two midwives mentioned in the passage above were probably chiefs among many midwives, and not the only two Hebrew midwives. Also "Hebrew midwives" did not mean they themselves were Hebrew, as they have decidedly Egyptian names according to these early writers, but they were the midwives for the Hebrew women.
(17) But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. (18) And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and have saved the male children alive?” (19) And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
This is one of my favorite passages! As Peter said in the New Testament, the midwives decided they "ought to obey God rather than men". They obeyed God rather than even the king! When the king asked them why they spared the boy babies, they even lied to him saying the Hebrew women were so strong they were giving birth before the midwives got to them.
Is this not a picture of late-term abortions? Is this not a perfect example of the right Godly response to such abhorrent procedures? Obey God rather than man's law when the law is in direct conflict with God's holy laws. There is no doubt that is a baby in the womb, and "thou shalt not kill"! Even if it means lying... But wait, isn't lying against one of the ten commandments of God? I couldn't help but think of the liberals' point of view that performing a wrong is okay if it is for the "greater good". Well, I suppose as long as the things of God are the greater good, and not the things of man that are contrary to God's law... But then I really looked at the commandment against lying. It didn't say "thou shalt not lie". It said not to "bear false witness against thy neighbor". You are not to spread an untruth against another human being! You are not to slander him and gossip about him, thus hurting him or his reputation. You are to love your neighbor! The midwives did not lie against another person, but rather chose to obey God and to love the Hebrew women and their babies in perfect harmony with God's law.
(20) Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. (21) And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
God blessed the midwives because of their actions to save the boy babies. Back to the question about whether or not the midwives were sinning and whether or not God blessed sinful behavior--God knows and judges the heart of a person; it says again that the midwives feared God, so their hearts were toward God and doing His will. I am confident that they were not wrong or sinful when they lied to Pharaoh. God blessed the midwives and made them households, which I believe is the intent of the original word used here. Additionally, the Israelite people multiplied and grew mighty, in part because of the actions of the midwives saving the boy babies.
(22) And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
Of course, Pharaoh meant only the Hebrew sons and not "every" son, as killing Egyptian babies would have done nothing to keep the Israelites from growing more and mightier than the Egyptians. When Pharaoh saw that his plan failed with the midwives, he then charged all the people to cast any boy babies into the river that they should come across, but to allow the girls to live.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
From the Death of Jacob to the Death of Joseph
Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Genesis 50:1) And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
In the last verse of the last chapter, Jacob had died, and it appears that Joseph immediately fell upon his father's face and kissed him and wept over him.
(2) And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
As they were still in Egypt, and Joseph was second in command only to Pharaoh, the physicians were seen as Joseph's servants, and he commanded them to embalm his father, which they did. Embalming was a common practice in Egypt, and it was very necessary in Jacob's case if his body was to be taken back to Canaan which would take some time.
(3) And forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
It apparently took forty days for the embalming process to be completed, and Jacob's body lay in state another thirty days, where it is said, even the Egyptians mourned the loss of Jacob.
(4) And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, (5) ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’”
Joseph asked the principle men of Pharaoh's court to speak to Pharaoh for him, probably because he was still in mourning for his father. The verse said that the days of mourning had passed, but Joseph was probably still in mourning attire, and it was said that no man could appear before the king in such a fashion. He asked the men to relay to Pharaoh for him that his father had made him swear to bury him back in the land of Canaan. He requested to be able to do that and he promised he would come back.
(6) And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.” (7) And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, (8) And all the house of Joseph, and his brothers, and his father’s house; only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
Pharaoh agreed and fully encouraged Joseph to go bury his father as his father had asked him. Not only all of Joseph's household and his father's household (except the little ones) went with Joseph to bury his father, but so did the servants of Pharaoh, all the elders of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. They must have had great honor and respect for Joseph.
(9) And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. (10) And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very grievous lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
What is surely described is a huge funeral procession, and then the funeral. "Atad" meant "bramble, thorn, or buckthorn", so this place was either called Atad because of the thorns or was owned by a person so named because he was a great farmer in this area of thorns. The threshing floor would have been a smoothed out or open area among the thorny brambles. This place was said to have been "beyond the Jordan". Coming from Egypt, it would seem as if the procession had made it through Canaan and was now on the east side of the Jordan. However, I have read that Moses in his writings of the first five books of the Bible, used the term "beyond the Jordan" to mean "westward of Jordan". "They", the members of the funeral procession, mourned with a great and grievous lamentation, but "he", Joseph, made a mourning for his father for seven days. Since it appears that there are two distinct descriptions of mourning, it has been said that perhaps the louder mourning might have been made by the Egyptians when they first arrived, so that the inhabitants of the country would know why they came, to peacefully bury their dead, and not to invade or make war on the inhabitants. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days, which was the time of mourning afterwards observed by the Jews.
(11) And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians"; therefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
Indeed the inhabitants of Canaan did see the funeral of Jacob in the threshing floor of Atad, and recognized it as a very grievous occasion. They even gave the place a name, which literally meant "meadow of Egypt", to commemorate the time the Egyptians came into Canaan for that funeral.
(12) And his sons did to him according as he commanded them. (13) For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.
Jacob's sons did as he had asked them to and indeed took him back to Canaan and buried him where he had asked to be buried, where his fathers before him had been buried in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham had purchased as a burial place for Sarah.
(14) And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. (15) And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and will certainly repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”
After they buried their father, Joseph and his brothers and all who went with him to bury his father, went back to Egypt. Now that their father was gone, Joseph's brothers were afraid that he might retaliate against them for what they had done to him. It's interesting that his former words to them about this matter seemed to have been forgotten; such is a guilty conscience, I suppose, never at rest.
(16) And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, (17) 'So shall you say to Joseph, “I pray you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you"', and now, we pray you, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
The brothers sent a messenger to Joseph which included a supposed message from their father. If that conversation did happen between Jacob and Joseph's brothers, it was not made known in scripture, but I suppose it could have happened. It seems a little suspicious, but Jacob may have indeed encouraged his sons to humbly ask Joseph's forgiveness. The brothers didn't tell Joseph that their father commanded that he, Joseph, should forgive his brothers, but rather their father commanded them, the brothers, to beg forgiveness, and that seems reasonable enough to be truthful. The brothers took it a step further and asked for forgiveness themselves as servants of the God of his father. Not only did they appeal to him as all sons of their father, but as all servants of a gracious and forgiving God. Joseph wept, probably partly because they still felt so guilty, but possibly at the thought of his father also begging for their mercy. He was obviously very touched by their words.
(18) And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
The brothers had previously sent a messenger to Joseph with their words. They now went to him themselves and fell down in submission before him declaring themselves servants to him, thus fulfilling Joseph's dream of the eleven stars making obeisance to him.
(19) And Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? (20) But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. (21) Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will nourish you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph's question about being in the place of God could be taken two ways, and maybe both were meant. First of all, it was not up to him to judge their previous actions. He had forgiven them and he certainly wouldn't take it upon himself to judge them further. He went on to tell them that what they might have intended for evil, God intended for good to save many people from starvation, so the implied question would be how could he question God and do anything differently. Joseph may have also meant that his brothers should not bow before him, a man, but that glory should belong to God alone. He comforted his brothers and told them that he would continue to provide for them and their children.
(22) And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. (23) And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees.
Joseph and his family, including his father's household, remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to 110 years of age. He lived to see the third generation of Ephraim's children, which I would assume would be his great-great-grandchildren. The second generation of Manasseh's children, or at least the children of Manasseh's son Machir, were also brought up under Joseph's guidance.
(24) And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (25) And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
Surely some of Joseph's older brothers had gone before them, but to those who remained and maybe to some of their sons who stood in their stead, Joseph comforted them with the same assurance his father had given him, that God would be with them and bring them back to the promised land. Perhaps Joseph spoke first to his brothers and then to the broader group of all the children of Israel, which would have been the descendants of Jacob. He "took an oath", showing unwavering confidence about the return of the sons of Israel to the promised land. It is interesting to note that Joseph was so sure of this fact even though he had not seen it in his lifetime, and that is probably because he spoke under the spirit of prophecy through faith in God's promise. As a matter of fact, Joseph is one of the "heroes of faith" later mentioned in Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 11:22, "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones."
(26) So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Joseph did die at the age of 110, and his body was embalmed and put in a coffin, but apparently not buried until the children of Israel had received their inheritance in Canaan:
"And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph." - Joshua 24:32
(Genesis 50:1) And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
In the last verse of the last chapter, Jacob had died, and it appears that Joseph immediately fell upon his father's face and kissed him and wept over him.
(2) And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
As they were still in Egypt, and Joseph was second in command only to Pharaoh, the physicians were seen as Joseph's servants, and he commanded them to embalm his father, which they did. Embalming was a common practice in Egypt, and it was very necessary in Jacob's case if his body was to be taken back to Canaan which would take some time.
(3) And forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
It apparently took forty days for the embalming process to be completed, and Jacob's body lay in state another thirty days, where it is said, even the Egyptians mourned the loss of Jacob.
(4) And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, (5) ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’”
Joseph asked the principle men of Pharaoh's court to speak to Pharaoh for him, probably because he was still in mourning for his father. The verse said that the days of mourning had passed, but Joseph was probably still in mourning attire, and it was said that no man could appear before the king in such a fashion. He asked the men to relay to Pharaoh for him that his father had made him swear to bury him back in the land of Canaan. He requested to be able to do that and he promised he would come back.
(6) And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.” (7) And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, (8) And all the house of Joseph, and his brothers, and his father’s house; only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
Pharaoh agreed and fully encouraged Joseph to go bury his father as his father had asked him. Not only all of Joseph's household and his father's household (except the little ones) went with Joseph to bury his father, but so did the servants of Pharaoh, all the elders of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. They must have had great honor and respect for Joseph.
(9) And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. (10) And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very grievous lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
What is surely described is a huge funeral procession, and then the funeral. "Atad" meant "bramble, thorn, or buckthorn", so this place was either called Atad because of the thorns or was owned by a person so named because he was a great farmer in this area of thorns. The threshing floor would have been a smoothed out or open area among the thorny brambles. This place was said to have been "beyond the Jordan". Coming from Egypt, it would seem as if the procession had made it through Canaan and was now on the east side of the Jordan. However, I have read that Moses in his writings of the first five books of the Bible, used the term "beyond the Jordan" to mean "westward of Jordan". "They", the members of the funeral procession, mourned with a great and grievous lamentation, but "he", Joseph, made a mourning for his father for seven days. Since it appears that there are two distinct descriptions of mourning, it has been said that perhaps the louder mourning might have been made by the Egyptians when they first arrived, so that the inhabitants of the country would know why they came, to peacefully bury their dead, and not to invade or make war on the inhabitants. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days, which was the time of mourning afterwards observed by the Jews.
(11) And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians"; therefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
Indeed the inhabitants of Canaan did see the funeral of Jacob in the threshing floor of Atad, and recognized it as a very grievous occasion. They even gave the place a name, which literally meant "meadow of Egypt", to commemorate the time the Egyptians came into Canaan for that funeral.
(12) And his sons did to him according as he commanded them. (13) For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.
Jacob's sons did as he had asked them to and indeed took him back to Canaan and buried him where he had asked to be buried, where his fathers before him had been buried in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham had purchased as a burial place for Sarah.
(14) And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. (15) And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and will certainly repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”
After they buried their father, Joseph and his brothers and all who went with him to bury his father, went back to Egypt. Now that their father was gone, Joseph's brothers were afraid that he might retaliate against them for what they had done to him. It's interesting that his former words to them about this matter seemed to have been forgotten; such is a guilty conscience, I suppose, never at rest.
(16) And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying, (17) 'So shall you say to Joseph, “I pray you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you"', and now, we pray you, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
The brothers sent a messenger to Joseph which included a supposed message from their father. If that conversation did happen between Jacob and Joseph's brothers, it was not made known in scripture, but I suppose it could have happened. It seems a little suspicious, but Jacob may have indeed encouraged his sons to humbly ask Joseph's forgiveness. The brothers didn't tell Joseph that their father commanded that he, Joseph, should forgive his brothers, but rather their father commanded them, the brothers, to beg forgiveness, and that seems reasonable enough to be truthful. The brothers took it a step further and asked for forgiveness themselves as servants of the God of his father. Not only did they appeal to him as all sons of their father, but as all servants of a gracious and forgiving God. Joseph wept, probably partly because they still felt so guilty, but possibly at the thought of his father also begging for their mercy. He was obviously very touched by their words.
(18) And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
The brothers had previously sent a messenger to Joseph with their words. They now went to him themselves and fell down in submission before him declaring themselves servants to him, thus fulfilling Joseph's dream of the eleven stars making obeisance to him.
(19) And Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? (20) But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. (21) Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will nourish you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph's question about being in the place of God could be taken two ways, and maybe both were meant. First of all, it was not up to him to judge their previous actions. He had forgiven them and he certainly wouldn't take it upon himself to judge them further. He went on to tell them that what they might have intended for evil, God intended for good to save many people from starvation, so the implied question would be how could he question God and do anything differently. Joseph may have also meant that his brothers should not bow before him, a man, but that glory should belong to God alone. He comforted his brothers and told them that he would continue to provide for them and their children.
(22) And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. (23) And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees.
Joseph and his family, including his father's household, remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to 110 years of age. He lived to see the third generation of Ephraim's children, which I would assume would be his great-great-grandchildren. The second generation of Manasseh's children, or at least the children of Manasseh's son Machir, were also brought up under Joseph's guidance.
(24) And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (25) And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
Surely some of Joseph's older brothers had gone before them, but to those who remained and maybe to some of their sons who stood in their stead, Joseph comforted them with the same assurance his father had given him, that God would be with them and bring them back to the promised land. Perhaps Joseph spoke first to his brothers and then to the broader group of all the children of Israel, which would have been the descendants of Jacob. He "took an oath", showing unwavering confidence about the return of the sons of Israel to the promised land. It is interesting to note that Joseph was so sure of this fact even though he had not seen it in his lifetime, and that is probably because he spoke under the spirit of prophecy through faith in God's promise. As a matter of fact, Joseph is one of the "heroes of faith" later mentioned in Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 11:22, "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones."
(26) So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Joseph did die at the age of 110, and his body was embalmed and put in a coffin, but apparently not buried until the children of Israel had received their inheritance in Canaan:
"And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph." - Joshua 24:32
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